Part 2: God Is Serious About His Covenants!

INTRO

RECAP from last week:

God is Sovereign over the nations

There is a basic moral law that is built into humanity.

Violation of the moral law makes a nation subject to the moral law giver.

God is sovereign over all, including those who do not know Him.

Amos 2:4–5 ESV

4 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked. 5 So I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

1) GOD IS SERIOUS ABOUT HIS COVENANTS (Amos 2:4-5)

God now turns to His own people…The gentile nations were judged for their lack of concern for humanity, God is judging Judah for its lack of concern for Him.

They rejected the reality of God and accepted the lies of men.

God made a covenant with the nation He created:

If they followed His laws and His statues, they would prosper and succeed.

They would be a holy nation and a shining beacon to rest of the world.

If they rejected His laws and statues, God would remove His favor and they would fall and be corrupted like the rest of the nations.

They abandoned the covenant, therefore, God would leave them open to their own devices and they would fall to the Babylonians.

While the judgment of Judah is short and the remainder of the Amos focuses on Israel (the Northern Kingdom), we should heed the judgment against Judah.

When we surrender to God and become His, we must live in His ways.

Yes the blood of Jesus covers our sin and the grace of God keeps us from being consumed, but God will remove His favor from our lives and leave us to the consequences we choose by living apart from Him if we reject the lifestyles He has prepared for our good.

2) GOD IS SERIOUS ABOUT THE NEW COVENANT

CLOSING